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GUN CARRIAGE. l No. 339,795. Patented Apr. 13, 1.886.

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(NaMoael.) I H. C. E. MALBT.

GUN CARRIAGE. v No. 339,795. PatentedApr. 13, 1886.

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4GUN CARRIAGE. Y No. 339,795. Y Patented Apr@ 13, 1886.

WITIESSBS: v M @Ma @(4a A i ATTORNEY UNITED STATES PATENT EEICE. y

HENRY CHARLES EDEN MALE'I, OF BRIGHTON, COUNTY OF SUSSEX, ENGLAND.

GUN-CARRIAGE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 339,795, dated April13, 1886.

Application led April 2l, 1885. Serial No. 162,978.

(No model.) Patented in England Feln'uurv l2. 1894. No. 3,149', and May22,

To all whom t may concern: l

Beit known that l, HENRY CHARLES EDEN MALET, a subject of the Queen ofGreat Britain, residing at NVilbury Lodge, Brighton, in the county ofSussex, England, have invented .a new and useful Improvement inGun-Oarriages, (for which Iobtained Letters Patent in Great Britain asfollows: N o. 3,149, dated` February 12, 1884, and No. 8,032, dated May22, 1884,) of which the following specification is a full, clear, andexact description.

The object of my invention is to produce a held-gun carriage havingattached thereto a recoil device and a shield.

Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4, Sheet 1, represent different views of a fieldgun and carriage with my improvements applied thereto. Fig. 1 is a sideelevation showing gun in firingposition; Fig. 2, an end elevation, andFig. 3 a plan of same. Fig. 4 is a side elevation of gun lirnocred upfor traveling. Fig. 5 Sheet 2, is a sectional elevation of the same,showing the cylinder enlarged and the valve connected thereto.

In Figs. 1 and 4 one wheel is removed, in order to show more clearly thearrangement ofthe carriage.

The same letters refer to the same parts in each figure.

The trail is composed of two girders or cheeks, ct a, united by top andbottom plates, b b', and terminating in a shoe and eye, c, to engagewith the hook on the limber in the usual way. The axle-tree is a tube,d, passing through holes in the cheeks of the trail, and firmly keyed orfastened therein. Diagonal stays d may also be provided, if necessary.Slid ends are provided to the axletree for the wheels to run upon.

The gun e is provided at or about its center of gravity with trunnions ee', which may be placed centrally with its axis, as shown in Fig. 3, or,if preferred, somewhat below the center, as in Figs. 1, 2, and 4. Tothese trunnions links f f are attached, by means of which the gun ishung from the cheeks of the trail, the said cheeks being carried up thenecessary height, as shown, and provided with bearings andcaps g g, toenable the gun to be removed from the carriage when required. By keepingthe trunnions low, as in Figs. 1, 2, and 4, it is not necessary to carrythe cheeks of the trail up so higli as when the trunnions are central.To the under side of the breech of the gun a rack, li, curved to aradius from the center of the trunnions e e is firmly attached. Twolightsuspension-links,i i, equal in length to the links ff, are hungfrom bearings z" fi on the cheeks of the trail, and carry at their lowerends by means of pivots a flat box or sheath, y', through which the rackh passes. This sheath is provided with a pinion, k, gearing into theteeth ot' theracl; 71., and upon the shaft of this pinion Va wormwheel,Z, is keyed, which is capable of rotation by means ofthe tangent screwand handwheel m.

The elevation and depression of thc gun is accomplished by turning thehand wheel. The position ofthe center line of the gun when atanelevation of twenty degrees and a depression of seventy degrees with thehorizontal are is shown in Fig. l. Thelinksifi not only support thiselevating apparatus, but they also preserve the parallelism of the gunwhen it swings back under the inuence of the force of recoil. To checkthe velocity of this swinging motion, and to restrain it within properlimits, a cylinder, liz., is provided. lt is hinged to the axle-trce bythe tube o, and its piston-rod head p is pivoted to the gun under thebreech. This cylinder is filled with oil or other suitable iiuid, and anorifice or valve, of, (see Fig. 5, Sheet 2,) capable of adjustment, isprovided in the piston or otherwise, so that the resistance offered tothe pas sage of the piston through the fluid can be regulated asdesired.

The action of the apparatus is as follows: Vhen the gun is iired, thei'orce of recoil tends to cause the gun to swing backward and upward inthe arc of a circle of a radius equal to the length of thesuspension-links, and at the same time to pull the piston through thefluid in the cylinder n, the valves of the said cylinder being soadjusted that when the gun has ceased to move in relation to thecarriage it will be in about the position indicated by the dotted linesq q. Thus the force of recoil will have raised the weight of the gunthrough a certain height, and at the same time encoun- IOO tered and sofar overcome the resistance of I the iiuid in the cylinder, which,however, being adjusted to allow of no further com- -i g i 339,795

pression, arrests the movement ot' the gun after it has traversed an arcof from, say, about seventy degress to ninety degrees, and causes whatremains of the strain of recoil to be now transferred as a pressing orpushing force to the gun-carriage. As the cylinder will oier aresistance to the descent of the gun, it will come back slowly, and willbe stopped by the piston abutting on the end of the cylinder exactly inthe position it was in when lired. The gun, when adjusted to therequired angle, may therefore be fired any number of times wit-houtaffecting such adjustment. The strains upon the carriage caused byrecoil will be compounded principally ot the pull of-the cylinder uponthe axle-tree, and the pull upon the bearingsgg through the linksff asthe gun rises in the arc of a circle. rlhislatter pull causes a strainof a graduallyincreasing character, which theoretically commences fromzero if the pressure caused by the dead-weight of the gun be negleeted.A small portion of the latter strain may probably be taken by the linksIt will thus be seen that there is no sudden blow or shock communicatedto the carriage on the firing of the gun, and the parts of the carriagemay therefore be constructed as lightly as is possible consistent withsufficient strength being retained to resist the strains and shocksincident to traveling.

Vhen the gun is to be limbered np for traveling, it is only necessary todepress the breech as far as possible by means of the elevatingapparatus, when it will present the appearance shown in Fig. 4; and inorder to relieve the links ff from the strain ofthe weight of the gunwhen in that position a small sealing, i', working in a slide, s, isforced up under the gun near its centerofgravity by means of a screw andhand-wheel, t, or other suitable device.

ln order to protect the men working the gun in action frommusketry-fire, the axletree seats citare formed'of sheet-steel, andarecapable of rotation about the axle-tree into a vertical position, v,Figs. 2 and 3. The back rail ishinged, so that it can be turned upvertically in line with the scat, and the side rail w is also hinged sothat it can be folded Hat against the seat, and the foot-rest x, beingalso hinged, hangs vertically of its own accord when the seat is thusrotated. A steel plate, y, is then hung on the back rail, and a similarplate, i/, on the hinge of the foot-rest. Suitable stops, c z, areprovided on the axle-tree, to limit the rotation of the seat between thevertical and horizontal positions by means of projections z z', whichabut against the stops .e z. The action of gravity will ret-ain the seatin the vertical position; but to fix it in the horizontal position asliding bolt, (not shown in the drawings,) passing through holes in thestops c z and projections z z', may be employed, or any other devicewhich will answer the same purpose.

To retain the back rail in the vertical position when the seat isvertical, hooks may be provided to engage with the edge of the seat. 1

The ends of the side rails fit into sockets in the back rail when in theordinary position for traveling, as shown in the drawings.

Figs. 2 andB show one axle-tree seat in the ordinary position and theother when arranged as a shield. The axle-tree seats a and the looseplates y y thus protect the space on each side of the gun. The spaceunder the gun is protected by the trail and the plate b, which is turnedup vertically in front of the standards on the trail, as shown clearlyin Figs. 1 and 2. By this means the only part left unprotected is thesmall space immediately over the gun; but this must be lel't open toallow for sighting.

rlhe plates y and y may be carried on the limber or ammunition-wagon, asmay be found most convenient; or all the plates Vfor a battery may becarried on a spare limber.

The axle-tree seats, as shown, are provided with springs. to render themeasier for the riders, and ammunitionboxes may be fitted to them in theordinary way, if required.

I do not claim as part of this invention the shields herein representedfor the protection of the gunners, as said shields are a part of theinvention which is the subject of my application for United StatesPatent, Serial No. 182,656, liled November 13, 1885.

Having thus described my invention, l desire to claim" 1. Thecombination, with the gun and its carriage, t links by which the gun issuspended from the carriage and a hydraulic recoil cylinder and pistonpivotal] y connected with the gun and carriage, substantially as and forthe purpose herein described.

2. rlhe combination, with the gun and its carriage, of links by whichthe gun is suspended from the carriage and a hydraulic cylinder andpiston connected pivot-ally with the gun and with the axle of thecarriage,

substantially as and for the purpose herein described.

3. The combination, with the gun audits carriage, of links by which thegun is snspended from the carriage, a rack attached to the gun, a piniongearing with said rack for elevating the gun, a box through which saidrack passes and which carries said pinion, and links which suspend thesaid box from said carriage, substantially as herein set forth.

ln testimony that l claim the vforegoing I have hereunto set my handthis 15th day of November, 1884.

HENRY CHARLES EDEN illALli'l. lVitnesses:

W. K. OARGILL, G. COLEMAN, Both of 63 Shop Street, Brighton, Engler/1d,Clerks IOO IIS

'lo Mr. Edwin Henrad, Solicitor and Notary v Public.

